A Highland flying school director told a tribunal that a former employee was to blame for two unserviced aircraft being flown on separate occasions in the space of three days.
William Roomes, also a flying instructor at Highland Aviation Training Ltd at Inverness Airport, said former receptionist Emily Barclay failed to check a system known as the “countdown clock” on her computer which ensures aircraft are safe to leave.
But Miss Barclay yesterday claimed the pilots and engineers should be ultimately responsible for servicing – and the tribunal judge appeared to agree with her.
The unserviced aircraft were taken out by a student on a two-hour solo training flight and a visiting instructor on a three-hour flight respectively, in late October.
Giving evidence at an employment tribunal in Inverness yesterday, Mr Roomes said: “It was a gross oversight of health and safety operations.”
Mr Roomes said the final straw came three weeks later when he heard from staff the 24-year-old was ”bragging” to pilot and customer Robert Shepherd about drinking too much and ending up in a police cell, after the company’s annual “wings” dinner to celebrate flying instructors completing their training.
He added: “This behaviour amounted to bringing the company into disrepute and gross misconduct and we had to terminate her employment.”
Miss Barclay is claiming unfair dismissal against her former employer and the equivalent of five weeks’ wages in compensation after she was asked to resign on November 26.
The tribunal heard her uncle, David Barclay, is co-director of the company with Mr Roomes.
Mr Roomes said that a computer system is in place which shows a “big red cross” through the relevant aircraft to show it is unserviced, describing her failure to stop the two aircraft going out as a “serious breach of health and safety”.
He said the aircraft require servicing every 50 flying hours and that a service booking should be looked at with 15 hours remaining.
But while cross-examining Mr Roome yesterday, Miss Barclay suggested the responsibility for taking out unserviced aircraft ultimately lies with the engineers and pilots.
At this point, tribunal judge James Hendry said the driver of a car is ultimately the person responsible for the condition of the vehicle, suggesting the pilot must also bear some responsibility. He said he was struggling to see how it was a “serious breach” by Miss Barclay.
Mr Roomes also claimed that, on November 3, Miss Barclay breached trust with her employer for concealing a court order sent to the company in July which asked for her wages to be deducted to pay an old debt.
He said he discussed this with Mr Barclay and they jointly suspended her for the day before meeting and issuing a written warning.
However, Miss Barclay said yesterday that she did not want to raise the issue because it was “embarrassing”.
She argued that Mr Roomes’s decision to start a “daily diary” after the first incident also suggested he was picking on her from when he started his role at the company that month.
Miss Barclay also denied that her comments to Mr Shepherd about the night out reflected badly on the company because she had known him through work for three years and that it was a personal – not a work – matter.
Highland Aviation Training Ltd has four fixed wing aircraft and one gyrocopter and trains pilots to fly them.
Miss Barclay will give her evidence to the tribunal today.
